The hounders are all upset about this

The most damaging turn in the investigation was the Portuguese police decision to name the couple as suspects after 'cadaver' and 'blood' dogs had apparently alerted them in the McCanns apartment.

But the authors write 'The discoveries the British sniffer dogs had apparently made had utterly changed the direction of the investigation. Had the dogs not been brought in, it is fair to say there would have been no Portuguese police decision to declare Madeleine's parents suspects'.

'A careful reading of the case files however, indicates that the decision that was made was premature and grew out of a perhaps understandable Portuguese misinterpretation of a poorly worded but key forensic finding in a preliminary email from the British Forensic Science Service.

'The British liaison officer who passed the email on to the Policia judiciaria appears to have warned them to wait for the arrival of the formal laboratory report.

'The PJ team, however, seem not only to have ignored the liaison officer's caution but the caveat in the report of the British specialist who had handled the dogs in Praia da Luz. 'No evidential or intelligence reliability' could be made as the result of a dog having 'alerted', handler Martin Grime had written. 'Unless it can be confirmed with corroborating evidence'.

'Corroborating forensic evidence that Madeleine had died in the McCanns' apartment, had bled there - indeed had even been there - never would materialise.

'Two veteran dog handlers told the authors that without forensic evidence, no reliance can be put on the alert indications the dogs made in the Madeleine case'.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/11082517/Could-Madeleine-be-safe-and-well-cared-for.html

Could Madeleine be safe and well-cared for?
In this edited extract from 'Looking for Madeleine', a new book on the McCann case, the authors analyse the theory that the girl may still be alive

Sykes wrote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/11082517/Could-Madeleine-be-safe-and-well-cared-for.html

Could Madeleine be safe and well-cared for?
In this edited extract from 'Looking for Madeleine', a new book on the McCann case, the authors analyse the theory that the girl may still be alive